Triple Take Thursday 3: Plates, Film, and Digital

Variety is the slice of life.  While I continue to shoot traditional film stocks lately, I've been dabbling in some other mediums at the same time.  I've become increasingly involved in the use of dry plates coated by Jason Lane, that have allowed me to use a number of cameras designed for such plates, while also improvising their use into a many other roll film cameras as well. 

I'm also doing a little bit more with digital cameras, between early models with decent specifications and more recent ones with more bells and whistles.  While it's no replacement for a film camera, it does make a pretty easy tag along on my film (and now plate) photo outings.  

Here and there, as I shoot some plates, I'll be supplementing them with the same scene shot on both film and digital to allow for an interesting comparison between the blue sensitive media of the plates, the panchromatic, ortho, or color media of the film, and one or more settings on a digital camera that may mimic or differ from that of the non-digital media.  

Following are three takes of another scene in Baltimore.  Today's trip makes a stop at the Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and was taken the day after last week's shot along Linden Avenue.  Unlike the previous day, this Sunday emerged vivid and sunny, with remnants of the snow of the evening before still lingering.  The 109 year old monument has stood at this spot since 1959, after a relocation from nearby Druid Hill Park necessitated by highway construction.  The site near the Wyman Park Dell works well for this monument, and it has since seen its surroundings changed in ways more befitting it, as the southbound lanes of nearby Charles Street that used to curve into 29th Street encroached more upon this monument than they do today.  The change in traffic pattern has made this site more pleasant and relaxing as a result, and its a periodic stopping point for me to do for some quick photographic wanderings.  

With a few hours to burn as a loved one was at a medical appointment, I elected to make the stop past this monument to do my "triple take" as it glimmered resplendent in the noon day sun.  My plate camera was a 6.5 x 9 Zeh Zeca which has been something of a guinea pig among my plate cameras.  It came to me in a bulk auction sporting a basic lens mounted on a worn out shutter that was salvaged from a Univex TLR.  I'd tried a couple of "transplant" lenses upon this camera before electing to give the Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 10.5cm f/4.5 from my Balda Pontina an indefinite home upon this platform. Supplementing this was the same rediscovered Yashica 35MC stocked with Eastman Double-X film that was featured on last week's entry, and the same Nikon J1 that I'd recently snapped up.  I fired off shots of the bright scene using all three cameras, with only the Zeca tripod mounted to accommodate the slow speed of the dry plates.     

Zeh Zeca 6.5 x 9 cm plate camera with Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 10.5cm: J. Lane Dry Plate (Sixth Plate) shot at ISO 2, f/8 at 1/10 seconds, developed in HC-110 and scanned.

Triple Take Thursday 2: Plates, Film, and Digital.

Variety is the slice of life.  While I continue to shoot traditional film stocks lately, I've been dabbling in some other mediums at the same time.  I've become increasingly involved in the use of dry plates coated by Jason Lane, that have allowed me to use a number of cameras designed for such plates, while also improvising their use into a many other roll film cameras as well. 

I'm also doing a little bit more with digital cameras, between early models with decent specifications and more recent ones with more bells and whistles.  While it's no replacement for a film camera, it does make a pretty easy tag along on my film (and now plate) photo outings.  

Here and there, as I shoot some plates, I'll be supplementing them with the same scene shot on both film and digital to allow for an interesting comparison between the blue sensitive media of the plates, the panchromatic, ortho, or color media of the film, and one or more settings on a digital camera that may mimic or differ from that of the non-digital media.  

Following are three takes of another scene in Baltimore, this time on a fascinating remnant of Linden Avenue, once a pretty vital arterial street that was almost entirely swallowed up to redevelopment beginning in the mid-1950's.  The 1700 block has managed to survive, complete with streetcar tracks that have been dormant since 1955.  Since the block is punctuated with an island in the middle, the east side of the street acts as auto parking, and the streetcar track remnants abruptly end, the vintage photo possibilities are somewhat limited in composition, but with careful cropping, an image of nostalgic nature is entirely possible with this scene.  

As a wet snow began to fall, I stopped past this favorite haunt one Saturday afternoon with three cameras in tow.  Instead of using a "proper" plate camera for plates, I was using the Kodak Bantam f/4.5 that I'd inherited from my father, with a pre-seated J. Lane "35mm" size plate as a recording medium.  Supplementing this was my newly rediscovered Yashica Electro 35MC stocked with Eastman Double-X film, and the Nikon J1 that I'd recently snapped up.  I fired off close focus shots of the scene using all three cameras, with the Bantam tripod mounted to accommodate the slow speed of the dry plates.     

Kodak Bantam 4.5: 36x50mm J. Lane Dry Plate shot at ISO 2, f/8 at 5 seconds, developed in HC-110 and scanned.

Triple Take Thursday 1: Plates, Film, and Digital

Variety is the slice of life.  While I continue to shoot traditional film stocks lately, I've been dabbling in some other mediums at the same time.  I've become increasingly involved in the use of dry plates coated by Jason Lane, that have allowed me to use a number of cameras designed for such plates, while also improvising their use into a many other roll film cameras as well. 

I'm also doing a little bit more with digital cameras, between early models with decent specifications and more recent ones with more bells and whistles.  While it's no replacement for a film camera, it does make a pretty easy tag along on my film (and now plate) photo outings.  

Here and there, as I shoot some plates, I'll be supplementing them with the same scene shot on both film and digital to allow for an interesting comparison between the blue sensitive media of the plates, the panchromatic or color media of the film, and one or more settings on a digital camera that may mimic or differ from that of the non-digital media.  

First up in a scene taken in Patterson Park in Baltimore.  I'd known for some time that there was a small lake there, but had never taken the time to visit it until earlier this week.  Along with me for my visit were a Kodak Recomar 33 plate camera that shoots 9x12cm size plates, a Kodak Signet 35 kindly lent to me by Mike Eckman, and a Nikon J1 that I recently picked up.  As a gentle drizzle began to threaten, I managed to shoot a closely focused scene along the banks of this small pond on all three cameras to compare.  

Kodak Recomar 33: 9x12 J. Lane Dry Plate developed in HC-110 and printed on Ilford Multigrade IV RC paper.  Shot at f/8 for 4 seconds

Digital Diminishment: A Year (and Decades) In Review

B.B. King once sang "The Thrill is Gone."  Though this song was penned long before commercial digital photography was a reality, the tag line from this song resonates a bit with me as 2015 draws to a close. It wasn't always this way.

Like so many, I made the switch from film to digital around the turn of the millennium.  At the time, it was such an easy choice to make.  A seeming one-time budget outlay meant the end of a constantly recurring stream of film developing expenses while providing instant gratification and the ability to review or retake one's photos on the fly.  By the end of 2002, my Canon Elan IIe was relegated to sitting idly while my Casio QV3000EX enabled me to take photos of my favorite subjects as well as to take photos of countless other subjects that I'd overlooked before due to the expenses of film developing.  It seemed there was no coming back.

2002, rendered by the Casio QV-3000

An X-Pro Project - Four Experiments in One

"So, um, how do you like that restaurant down the street?"

"I don't care for it?"

"Really?!? How many times have you been there?"

"I never have."

"Um.... Alrighty then!"

Such could very well be akin to the narrative defining my feelings on cross processing of slide film using C-41 chemistry.  I'd never tried it, and never really intended to do so either, as the idea seemed little "hipster gimmicky" to me, and I'd considered myself a photographic purist. In an almost defiant move to the notion of the idea, I'd even happily developed two rolls of Agfa Crossbird, a film that readily promotes use as a cross processing medium, in conventional E-6 chemistry.

In early April, while reading one of my favorite photo blogs, the Casual Photophile, I happened upon a post detailing the basics of X-Pro. In short, by the time I finished reading the article, the engaging Photophile managed to break it all down to the point where the idea of shooting a roll of film and then cross processing it actually sounded like FUN.  That is, after all, a big part of why I like to shoot film.  After posting my comments on the excellent article, he encouraged me to give it a try, hence the post that you are reading now.  

I had a few rolls of recently expired Velvia 100F 120 slide film lying about whose color rendition (when processed in E6) about which I wasn't exactly over the moon, so this seemed the obvious choice for a film medium.  I also certainly had a few dormant medium format cameras sitting about waiting for their next assignment.  I elected to choose the most "Lo-Fi" of them all, the humble Agfa Billy Record I, one of the very first folding cameras that I ever picked up.  With a slow and modest f/6.3 lens and only 3 shutter speeds, it seemed to be the ideal conduit for this part of the experiment.

Since this was a project centered on experimentation, it seemed like this would be a nice opportunity to broaden my experimental horizons in the process.  Since my Olympus PEN E-PM2 offered a "Cross Process" creative filter, I figured I would shoot comparable images on it using this mode to compare to the film results.  Finally, since I was going "Lo-Fi" with my look on the analog side, it seemed only natural to use an adapted manual focus lens on the digital body instead of an AF lens.  To closely match the composition of the focal length of the film shots, my most suitable choice was the widest of these in my possession, a 24mm f/2.8 Promaster lens that I've rarely used.  

Therefore, this one experiment actually wound up consisting of four experiments rolled into one! 

1. Cross Processing Slide film, which I've never done before.
2. Using the previously unused Cross Processing filter on my Olympus Pen.
3. Shooting with the under-utilized Agfa Billy 
4. Shooting with the under-utilized Pro Master 24mm lens.  

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Wednesday Window to the World #21

This Week:

What: Lamplighter

Wednesday Window to the World #20

This Week:

What: Tis the Season

Wednesday Window to the World #19

This Week:

What: Old neon sign in afternoon light

Wednesday Window to the World #18

This Week:

What: Autumn's Last Gasp

10 Tips and Tricks of "Nostalgraphy"

Oddly, this post starts in the middle of a Big Bang Theory Episode.

Character Dr. Sheldon Cooper makes mention of a word he is coining, "prevening," to accurately describe the period between afternoon and evening.

My own coined term doesn't quite roll off the tongue as easily as that of Jim Parson's famous character,  but I think it's about as succinct in describing a favorite photographic theme of mine: "nostalgraphy."

It's a fairly simple portmanteau that combines "nostalgia" and "photography."  That said, the concept of nostalgraphy is not exactly self-explanatory by default.  In short, it is the process of taking a photo in the present day with the intention of making it look as if it were taken decades ago.

Succinctly, what it boils down to is how this image definitely looks like it was taken decades ago...

but what about this one?

Wednesday Window to the World #17

This Week:

What: Neon Sign framed by Gingko Leaves

Wednesday Window to the World #16

This Week:

What: Fall Leaves

The Time Camera: Capturing Moments in Time from decades ago.

Could this be the greatest advance in imaging since color photography?

Imagine, walking up to a scene, setting your camera on a tripod, selecting the time capture feature from the feature set, and then keying in any date and time from the past 100 years, before finally taking a long (3-9 minute) time exposure that is able to capture a "light signature" that can not be detected by the human eye or most conventional optics.  When the waiting is finally over, you are greeted (hopefully) with a usable image of that exact spot on the date and time you selected.

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the Time Camera.

Catonsville Junction Streetcar Loop near Baltimore as seen in late 1961 through the time camera, on a five minute and 40 second exposure.

Wednesday Window to the World #15

This Week:

What: Street Scene at Night

Wednesday Window to the World #14

This Week:

What: Rainbow at Sunset

Wednesday Window to the World #13

This Week:

What: Belgian Block Street with Streetcar Tracks